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Current 2L at a TT, Top 10%, Law Review with E-Board position next year, SA at smaller (30 attorney) firm. My college roommate just passed my resume along to his uncle who is a retired, federal judge who sat in a specialty court (think Tax/Federal Claims/International Trade), who said he would pass it along to the right people.

I would really like to clerk and think this might be one of the best ways for me to sneak into something federal and I was wondering if this will help my chances. I have no idea how much interaction these types of judges have with other federal judges (if any?) but he did travel to hear cases so he might know more people this way.

Not putting all my eggs in this basket by any means but just curious if it could possibly lead to something.Thoughts and unsupported speculation welcomed.

Anonymous User wrote:Current 2L at a TT, Top 10%, Law Review with E-Board position next year, SA at smaller (30 attorney) firm. My college roommate just passed my resume along to his uncle who is a retired, federal judge who sat in a specialty court (think Tax/Federal Claims/International Trade), who said he would pass it along to the right people.

I would really like to clerk and think this might be one of the best ways for me to sneak into something federal and I was wondering if this will help my chances. I have no idea how much interaction these types of judges have with other federal judges (if any?) but he did travel to hear cases so he might know more people this way.

Not putting all my eggs in this basket by any means but just curious if it could possibly lead to something.Thoughts and unsupported speculation welcomed.

It can never hurt but I wouldn't count on anything. There are people in the top 10% at T10 schools who won't get federal clerkships. I am around top 1/4 at a T10 and told that getting something federal would be very difficult, especially since I'm not on LR. So like I said, just don't get your hopes up.

Low chance of helping based on the information you gave. I don't say that to discourage you, but just to give you a realistic expectation regarding the outcome.

Judges know lots of people. They have family members, neighbors, friends, former colleagues, current colleagues, contacts in academia, etc. Your connection is fairly tenuous. A friend giving it to a family member who senior status or retired judge who is then giving it to other judges. The only person who can talk about you personally is the college roommate and he probably can't talk about your performance in law school or your reasoning ability. Once its past him to his uncle, the uncle can't speak with any authority on you. So a judge getting that recommendation will have to treat it very skeptically.

What it can do is get your resume in front of people. If your resume on its own is enough to impress a judge, then they'll take it. So it is beneficial in helping your application get noticed out of a pile (possibly!), but it has no additional merit beyond that.

OP here, thanks for the responses. You all basically confirmed my initial suspicion that while it might get my resume looked at, its really not going to help out that much. But hey, on the off chance it helps me get an interview and things somehow fall into place, that would be great. Its highly unlikely but I can dream.